I’ve been writing about castor oil a lot, mainly because I’ve had some wonderful results from it personally. Among other things, castor oil has aided in my recovery from PCOS and dissolved a painful calcium deposit on my heel. That it could do those things were amazing to me — it still is.

Sometimes though, I find myself reluctant to write about my own positive experiences because the extent of my successful healing can sound like I’m making it all up. I think part of it is because the “accepted” way of getting treatment for most of the modern Western world is to go to a doctor, take lots of pills (ALL of which are liver-toxic, by the way) or go for painful surgery (which may or may not make things worse). If you do these things, no one will question your sanity or your prudence.

This is despite the fact that most modern, accepted treatments = expensive, with possibly harmful side effects, may/may not even work, usually become ineffective when discontinued (which means you are chained for life), only seeks to treat the surface symptoms, abandons even the pretense of healing as its aim (this last one makes me want to alternately cry and tear my hair out because it is sheer madness… unethical, even).

Meanwhile, the method of treatment I’m proposing (castor oil) is so simple, cheap and effective that many will write it off without even giving it a chance. After all, how can it work when it’s not expensive, painful and harmful to us, right? I know some might mock me or think me as simple-minded, or even worse, a scam artist…

The other day, someone asked me in the comments if I was writing about castor oil because I make money by selling it. I do not produce or sell castor oil on this site or anywhere else. I never have. All the ads on my article pages are contextual ads, not direct product ads. My first instinct when reading this commenter’s question was to feel somewhat hurt/indignant. But after a while, I ended up feeling quite grateful to the commenter as it gave me a chance to clarify an issue that I didn’t even know might cross some readers’ minds.

I seem to have rambled on a bit here… My point is, in the end, it really doesn’t matter what some choose to believe or disbelieve about castor oil. It only matters what I believe/experience/do/ultimately share with the world. I know my messages will go out to those who really need it. That to me is everything. And that is partly why I’ve decided to write this article. Hopefully, it will convince some people to open up their minds a little. Well, I can hope!

This article is quite different from my other ones. I’ve realised that while it’s one thing for me to TELL people about my experience with using castor oil, it’s quite something else when I can SHOW them. That’s right, I’m putting aside any self-consciousness I have and showing everyone my own before-and-after photos. Yeah!!! And here we go…

The story of how I healed my scar using castor oil

THE SHORT VERSION: I successfully healed a three-year old deep burn scar on my leg by using castor oil. Scroll down for photos galore. The end.

THE LONG VERSION: In 2007, I accidentally burned my leg on a hot motorcycle exhaust pipe. Yes, I lead a very exciting life. 🙂 The burn was on the inner calf of my right leg. My initial injury can be classified as a deep second-degree burn.

After the wound scabbed and peeled over a couple of weeks, the scarred skin that emerged was:

almost completely hairless

much less sensitive to touch than the normal, healthy skin around it. These mean the burn was deep and severe enough to have “killed” most of the hair follicles as well as some nerve endings.

had a complete and “permanent” change in color. This was mostly hyper-pigmentation (darkening) mixed with a bit of hypo-pigmentation (loss of color), which is common in deep burns. The pigment change was dermal (reached the lower dermis layer of the skin, as opposed to the upper epidermis only), and deep enough that conventional lightening treatments such as hydroquinone could do nothing to change it.

there was also a slight crescent-shaped depression close to the centre of the scar. I could feel the dip in my skin by touch alone.

In October 2009, I started using castor oil on my leg.By June 2010 (9 months later), the scar was almost gone.

Amazingly, after this nine-month period:

there was normal hair growth (I know the photos below don’t show the hair, but that’s only because I’ve shaved my legs. )

my touch sensitivityreturned — nerves I previously thought were dead and gone were revived back to life

skin color/pigmentation returned to normal, blending in almost flawlessly with my surrounding skin. This was not something I expected at all since I have olive skin or Type IV skin

the small depression had mostly filled in with healthy new tissue

In the most recent photo below (March 2011), you can still see a shadow of the scar on my calf. However, this was deliberate on my part — in August 2010, I decided to stop using castor oil on my leg. As strange as this may sound, I wanted a little bit of my scar to remain with me, because in my eyes, it had turned from a flaw into a reminder of my mind-opening journey.

You may read this article and imagine that the journey was a completely smooth, confident and happy one for me, but that isn’t the case at all. I had many ups and downs. During the first few months, I had many “downs”. There were days when I lost faith and thought about giving up. But as I discovered, all things change with time.

So yes, I want to keep a little bit of my scar with me. It’s a reminder of how far I’ve come and how much I’ve healed. Even now, everytime I look at it, I’d feel so very grateful for my healing and in awe of my body’s amazing transformation.

It truly makes me wonder what else is possible!

My method of using castor oil

How I used castor oil was easy — I kept it on my scar as much as I can. There were many days when I kept castor oil on my scar for almost 24 hours a day (excluding the breaks for showers).

During the day, I would massage castor oil into my scar. Sometimes I did this a few times a day. I learnt to carry a tiny travel bottle of castor oil with me to do this in the restroom at public places or at work.

At night, I would put a castor oil pack on my scar before going to bed. A castor oil pack is just a way to keep castor oil on the skin by wrapping it up. For my castor oil pack, I would slather the oil on my scar, cover it with cotton gauze, put more castor oil over that, and then wrap my calf up in cling film (plastic wrap) to keep it from staining my sheets. I then put on a long sock to make sure everything stayed on while I slept. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I got it done very quickly, usually in less than a few minutes.

What I used

I used only microwave-safe cling film that’s toxin-free, which seems to be fairly safe. It’s important to use toxin-free plastic if you’re putting on a castor oil pack. Castor oil is a very good solvent and can displace the chemicals and dyes in some plastics. Once displaced, these chemicals may be readily absorbed by the skin, leading to irritation (thanks to dollfaceluna for pointing this out to me!).
[UPDATE: I recently found something that might work even better than cling flim — silicone food wraps (sometimes called stretch lids/silicone lids). They’re stronger than cling film, clear, washable and maintain their shape (they don’t bunch up easily). And because they’re washable and reusable, they also save money and reduce waste. I bought a set and it’s very easy to cut them down to size. Most come in a few sizes, so you may not even need to cut them.]

I used cotton gauze because it was cheap and disposable, but when I first started out, I was using cut cloth (basic unbleached cotton). Both are fine, but because castor oil will go rancid eventually, I’d need to wash/dry the cloth every few nights to keep it fresh. Eventually, I switched to cotton gauze that I bought at the pharmacy. Gauze was cheap, plentiful and disposable, so I didn’t need to wash it. It came in long strips so I cut them up into small squares for my use. If you decide to use cloth instead, here’s a tip: wash it out with baking soda. Baking soda gets castor oil out very well.

The brands of castor oil I used were Home Health, Heritage and Now Foods (where to buy castor oil?). However, this shouldn’t matter. Any brand that’s hexane-free and cold-pressed will do (the oil should ideally be cold-pressed because it retains more nutrients this way — the cold-pressed oil extraction method is much gentler than conventional methods; for example, it uses no heat). Anyway, I couldn’t tell any difference in the quality between the brands I used. So don’t worry about brands so much, I made my own purchasing choices based on how large a bottle I could get for as low a price as possible, just because I go through a LOT of castor oil. 🙂

I used castor oil this way daily, but I also took breaks from it once in a while to let my skin rest. I found that my heavy usage of castor oil would sometimes “loosen” the skin on my scar, making it look a bit wrinkly. Kind of like the way skin would “prune up” when we stay in a bath too long. I wasn’t worried the first time I noticed this “loosening effect” because I somehow knew it was temporary. This probably happens because castor oil is a very good humectant and will put moisture into the skin. The breaks I took gave my skin a rest and then everything would tighten up again. This would be anywhere between a week to two weeks. I took as much time as my skin needed to tighten back up.

Just to be clear, this temporary loosening only happened because I was using castor oil very intensively on my scar (almost 24 hours/day and over many consecutive days). I’ve never gotten any such effect through normal usage of castor oil on other parts of my body or my face.

In the beginning, I worried that taking these breaks from my regimen would delay my healing. But when I saw that my scar was continuing to heal and progress regardless, I started to change my mind. I now believe these breaks were beneficial and possibly even crucial in healing my scar. I believe my skin was rebuilding itself more efficiently during the rest periods, while breaking down the scar tissue more actively during the “on” periods. But that’s just my personal opinion, I don’t exactly know how castor oil was able to do what it did for me, I only have my theories. (If you’re interested in finding out more on your own, google Edgar Cayce and castor oil. Edgar Cayce was a pioneer and advocate of castor oil use. )

Like I told a commenter (Matt), it’s a fairly intensive daily regimen, which was sometimes hard to keep up with. But then I started to see results… Slowly but surely, I saw my scar changing with my own eyes after a few months. This was the proof that kept me going when I would have otherwise given up.

How my scar changed

Everyone’s scars and skin injuries are different so it would make sense for us to heal differently. This was how my scar changed.

The appearance of tiny light dots

After a few months, I started seeing many tiny, light-ish dots in my hyperpigmented scar. They were so tiny at first that I could only see them by looking closely under the bright light of a torch. Then the tiny dots grew large enough that I could see them in normal lighting.

These dots continued to expand and eventually started to join up with each other. I got very excited at that. Eventually, I had small patches of healed, unblemished skin within my scar, which I spent many minutes staring at and touching…. I was simply amazed at them.

Hair growth (important for regeneration!)

At the same time, I started seeing short and very fine, light-colored hairs appear on my scar. At first, these hairs were almost colourless and looked “golden” under a light. Over time, they grew longer, thicker and darker, until they looked no different from the hair on the rest of my legs. I noticed that my scar started to show faster improvement after normal hair growth returned.

This is probably because hair growth and follicles are important in cell regeneration. You may be surprised by this, but stem cells — which turn into our skin cells and nerve cells and everything else — originate from our hair follicles (these stem cells also aid skin regeneration after an injury—read ‘Hair follicle stem cells – the hairy truth‘). Knowing that my follicles were important in healing my scar, I made sure not to harm them by waxing since this would pull them from the root. And yes, I admit that I even avoided shaving my scar most of the time just to be safe. Although in theory, shaving should not do much harm, and what harm it causes should be temporary at the most.

Basically, the changes in my scar came slowly and started out very small, but these little changes added up to a big one over nine months.

In fact, here’s another tip: if you’re trying to heal a scar with castor oil, take a good, clear photo of it now if you can. It would be useful for you to look at it and make comparisons after a few months just because it’s sometimes hard for us to see the changes in something that we look at everyday.

About the photos

It was awkward for me to take photos of my calf with my phone. The easiest way for me to take a good shot was to rest my right calf over my left thigh. I actually have tons of photos, these are only a few. What can I say… I’m a big geek and something of an amateur documenter. I’ve been journaling for many years now for my own nerdy pleasure. I never thought I would share these photos with anyone else, let alone publish them online for the whole world to see!

If you’re reading this and have a deep scar you wish to treat, I hope my photos and story give you some hope. 🙂

Date

Photos (click to enlarge)

Details

May 2008

Taken with Sony Ericsson K770i Cybershot. Flash was OFF. You can clearly see the crescent-shaped depression in the middle.

May 2008

Taken with Sony Ericsson K770i Cybershot. Flash was ON. Compare with the photo above taken on the same occasion. The camera flash makes a big difference.

Another angle to give you some context. Taken with Sony Ericsson Hazel (no timestamp feature available). Flash was ON.

Note: Thank you to the girl I saw at lunchtime today. She was walking ahead of me in a skirt and had the same burn scar I did, on the same place on her calf. I really, really wanted to ask her about it (motorcycle exhaust pipe, huh?). I wanted to roll up my pant leg, show her my calf and share with her what I did to heal it. But I didn’t. Eventhough I would have approached her with nothing but love and an enthusiastic desire to share/help, I thought there was a chance she would not have wanted my help in that setting (we were in a crowded place and she was not alone).

Afterwards, I wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision in not speaking to her. Sometimes, we fear too much and a golden moment in life might pass us by. I thought about how I could make things right somehow, and I came up with the idea of putting this article + some of my photos together. So this was all really inspired by her. Thank you!

Hi Samantha: Thanks for the tips on castor oil. I severed the flexor tendon on my right thumb. Surgery was delayed, result was surgery in the carpal tunnel. That
was three years ago this Saturday. Now, lots of issues mostly due to scar tissue,
first in the carpal tunnel, leads to nerve complications, pain etc. second, in the thumb at the first joint, the scar tissue restricts movement in the thumb. So, on to castor oil, which I had used before, with limited success. I use a wrap, both on the thumb and the wrist, while I sleep, 8 hours per day. A little difference as I
add DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) to the castor oil. Currently 5 parts oil to 2 parts
DMSO. DMSO is known to carry compounds into membrane (scar tissue). Essentially, the DMSO delivers the castor oil to the scar tissue and subsequently
into the scar tissue. I started at 5 parts to 1 and have increased to 5 parts to 2.
After three weeks, the physio therapist I attend has remarked that he sees significant change in both the thumb and the wrist. I’ll keep you advised over the next several months

Hi, my name is mae 29 and has been suffering from PCOS for 2 years now. Pills(BC) and Metformin to normalize my period cycle just drives me crazy and severe side effects affects my daily routine. So i end up not taking the meds and stopped trying because my stomachaches and nauseations will range to mild then severe. Iv heard of castor oil and reading this article gives me hope to someday gain back my confidence and hope of having another bundle of joy. Seing the doctor for my condition has been too much time spent,financially,effort and non stop refferals which ends up to one thing and another but i end up with still the same problem. I would like to try castor oil and how to use it to treat pcos. Please help me.? It would save me alot of time from missing work for appointments and save money. ? Thank you..?

It’s an account of my own personal journey of healing my cysts. And while each person’s uterine issues and body conditions/history etc will be unique, perhaps you can glean some ideas from it. I also used castor oil on my abdomen.

Hi,
This is probably my last resort before trying lasers.
Ive read your blog a lot of times by now.
Your are really giving hope to get rid of my burn nose scar.

The scar is both indented and hypertrophic. It looks like a crater on the side of my nose.

Ive done some research. I know that CO boosts or contains PGE2 wich is good against hypertrophic scarring.
Because hypertrophic scars lack PGE2. When the scars where compressed the levels of pge2 raised and induced healing.

What i’m doing right now is massage CO into the scar when at work. At home i use medical cloth whatever it called and put it on with CO overload.

This scar is really putting me down.
I forgot to say ive been using CO for 2 weeks now on my acne chest arm scars while needling weekly. Really seeing results already. Most of them are all hypertrophic. I will keep this up.

Hi samantha! Thankyou for writing this article that focuses on scar healing. I’m 21 now, and i also have motorcycle exhaust pipe burn and it turned into a brown scar. It was huge. A bit bigger than yours. It gives me hope. Please help me. Thank you!

@Dodow
Hi dodow! If you don’t mind? Can we talk on twitter/Facebook? Thanks for keeping my hopes up. As of today. I’m currently using biooil for mos. with no significant results. I should really try Castor Oil. How did u apply it? 🙂 Thanks!

I would love to talk but i don’t have twitter or facebook are there any other options?

The way i apply it, is just massaging it all over my arms and chest. For some big hypertrophic scars i use some medical cloth for the night. The same for my nose scar. Remember the progress is really slow. But i almost use it for 2 months i really can see results in some scars like i mentioned before.

Just keep in mind when you buy castor oil that it must be cold pressed. I got mine from ebay BP grade. It is really cheap.

Hi dodow! How about Yahoo? Gmail? I’ll add you! 🙂 Where can I locally buy the castor oil? Is it available at some grocery stores? Thanks! I know the progress would be slow. Patience and consistency’s the key right? 🙂 I really hate the scar i have behind my leg. I really want to get rid of it 🙁

@Dodow
Hi dodow! I tried looking at some pharmacies but I was hesitant to buy. on the bottle, I’ve read “cathartic and purgative” Formulation: each ml ….contains 1 castor oil. I’m not sure if I’m buying the right one. Please help.

Ohhhh myy god samantha you are a life saver , i love you so muchh ? seriously i hope you get all that you ever wished for.
You have changed my life , i had scars , but one day i came across your arricle i wasnt serious about it at first , but i thought ehh whta the hell what have i got to loose lets give castor oil a try too , maybe this lady is not genuine ..
You wont believe it , just within a week i started seeing changes , those tiny white spots started appearing and they have started fading now ..
I seriously owe it all to you ❤ thank you so muchh ..

Happy to know that your scars are fading. I also started using castor oil two days ago. Were yours scars small or big and were they old or you recently had them? I’m just curious because I had chickenpox and it left some hideous scars and just want to know that would it work for my scars as well.

I already have my castor oil. I bought it online. It is pure, cold-pressed and Hexane free. it is imported from India. I hope i bought the right one. I’ve been using it for 3 days. I’ll update you in a few weeks. Thank you! 🙂 Btw, Is it really sticky(texture) and extra thick?

Hi, I just read your post and loved it. Does castor oil work for all types of scars and burns. I have a scar at the center of my nose and it’s in the shape of a thick outline of an oval. I completely hate and cover it with makeup everyday. I got the scar from picking at a blackhead during my holiday’s 9 months ago. Would castor oil get rid of this ?

Hello Samantha! Love all of your information!
Could you tell me… might applying CO on neck thyroid area possibly aid in shrinking thyroid calcification nodules which are located at the front of the thyroid and visually apparent right below the skin? Diagnosed by 2 doctors and sonogram shows calcification in small clusters. If you feel CO is worth a try, wondering if you would just apply the CO massaging it in, or would you need to apply and cover the area?
Thank You!
Levi

I don’t know much about thyroid nodules specifically, but there’s no harm trying castor oil over that area, especially if you feel it might help. From my experience, it’s a very healing oil. Massaging it in might be easier given the location. It might be cumbersome trying to hold a castor oil pack there unless you’re lying down.

Regarding calcification though, I do have one suggestion and that is to consider supplementing with magnesium chloride. Magnesium is a natural antagonist to calcium and studies have shown that it can remove calcification in soft tissue. I’d also written about how increasing my magnesium levels has helped my own health issues here. There are more links about magnesium there as well, including an invaluable Weston Price article.

HI Samantha . . . Thank you so much for your reply. I do know about the Magnesium/Calcium relationship… So much so, I have rarely ever taken a calcium supplement. The Magnesium I’ve been taking for a 3 or 4 years since my diagnosis is a liquid form of Angstrom 2000 +/- parts per million. Have regular sonograms at 6 mo. intervals, now once a year, and there have been no changes for 3 years, but of course, I want the “look” GONE!! Possibly, you mention the magnesium “chloride” to be “specific for calcification” ?
YES! I will click and read what you say you have written!!
Thanks Again!
Levi

Yes, magnesium chloride seems to be the most absorbable form. When we take other forms, our stomach needs to break it down into mag chloride anyway (assuming there’s enough hydrochloric acid being produced by the stomach). I also spray it on my skin, which I actually prefer because it gives me immediate relief and bypasses the digestive system completely.

I am really happy for the recovery you made using castor oil. I recently had chickenpox and it left me with some hideous looking scars all over my body. Do you think that castor oil could help these scars? these are pretty small and are not deep at all. Considering the fact that my scars are newer and smaller than your scar, do you think that these scars will fade away faster that your scar? Thank you!

I had broken capillaries and redness on my nose. Dermatologist used a Cutera CoolGuide Vantage Nd:Yag laser. Didn’t explain would have any side effects. Totally wrong! Burned a 2mm hole on side of nose resulting in immediate scabbing which lasted almost 2 weeks. When scab came off, not only was there an indent, but a major brown mark. Obvious. Also, in other areas, caused brown pigmentation. Did it work for removing the capillaries and redness? Yes. But not totally. But the side effects? Not worth it! Try another laser and make sure the derm knows how to use it! Now the good news…. I used castor oil and rubbed it into the scar areas on and off for almost 5 months. In the immediate short term nothing much changed, except that I was psychologically not in a good place. Prayed that in a year, I would be healed. 5 months later, I can’t say whether the scar healed by itself, or whether the CO helped, but it did. The scar miraculously rebuilt itself and there is now no dent and the brown color is all gone from it as well as the other brown areas of my skin that were effected by the laser. So I believe CO doesn’t hurt and based on anecdotal evidence contained on this board, it could sure have helped a great deal but patience is the key! Good luck all and thank you for the writer of this original post for inspiring me to give it a try. Best to all.

Hi Samantha,
I have melasma/post inflammatory pigmentation on my face and neck. I have tried so many different creams and even laser but things just keep getting worse. I came across your page and decided to try CO but I ended up breaking out a lot so is there any carrier oil that I can mix it with to avaid the breakout problem?

It’s been awhile since i updated. 😀
Ive been using castor oil around 3 months now and have some good stuff to report.

The scars that i have are really changing.
Sometimes i see this white dot on and around the scars like you said. But to me it’s more like whitehead. But anyway that’s seems to be the sign for regenaration.

The new scar on my nose is not that noticable anymore. Only when i look in the mirror with the light on. You can see a small red bump. I believe when the redness fades you can’t even see the bump.
The scar is almost smooth too! So no crater anymore 🙂

The older hypertrophic scar on my nose from 8/9 years ago. Is even less noticable. This thing is almost gone!

My arm/shoulder scars are better but not as good as the other scars that i have. Ive read somewhere that wounds on your arms heals slower so probably scars too.

My chest scars are also still there but it’s a huge improvement! The hypertrophic scars are not that big anymore.
As long i see improvement i won’t quit. The only downside i going to take a 2 week break for holiday. I take CO with me so i’ll use it when ever i can.

First i was sceptical but now i’m starting to believe CO is really something special. It just takes a lot of time.
This is probably better than all the scar revision options out there that cost you a lot of money and sometimes won’t even work.

Sam i can’t thank you enough for this great blog!
You really gave me hope again and others too i hope.
I also hope other people that are sceptical are giving CO a chance. It’s really worth it and it’s cheap so why not.

Hi Samantha
I have a big depressed car on my cheek which is a result of a bad surgeon who makes me an exerese for nothing. i have no cancer as he says.
so i hate the surgeons now because they think too much at the money
excuse my poor english i am french.
i had read yours posts very interesting, so i dediced to use castor oil since many months but the depressed car seem more wider and more white than before : is it normal ?
i am so sad
thanks a lot for your answer.
best regards

It’s very normal for scars to change appearance as they heal (e.g. widen or thin, change colour or shape). Scars are like icebergs, there’s a lot more going underneath than what we see on the surface. And as the scar heals from the bottom-up, you’ll start to see the scarring that was previously buried beneath continue to come up the surface. So it’ll continue to change in appearance as time goes by and if you keep up with the castor oil applications.

I can understand why it would worry you, but this is a good thing and the only way to achieve complete healing.

Hi I have a scar on my face just under my lower lip. Im not exactly sure how I got it. I think it may have been from hot wax when a wax place talked me into getting my face waxed and I think the wax may have ben too hot. Anyways I was wondering if castor oil would help heal the scar even though it is on my face?

Hi Nawal, yes I think you can be hopeful that castor oil can help your discolouration as well. It may not be a scar, but there could be chemical damage to heal from.

I would suggest rubbing a small amount of the oil into the skin before bed each night. You can also do this during the day if that’s doable, but it may feel uncomfortably warm as castor oil is quite thick.

I am african american with a light scar on my face? Will thr castor oil help with getting my dark skin back and eliminating this light tan-ish white scar?
Please answer asap.
No hope considering cosmetic tattoo

I have a big brown scar near my smile line, on my cheek to be precise, which then changed to a mark as I had a pimple and I guess I used a few chemical products which were too harsh for my skin.

Currently it’s still a scar/wound so have been using Franch oil on it, the wound which caused a black skin is peeling off slowly but skin is still abit discoloured beneath. I am desperate to get it back to my actual skin colour. Once the wound is fully healed and the remaining dark skin falls off, I’ll be using CO as your story gives me hope & life to such distressful issues a person can have due to scars/discolouration on their face.

I’ve used CO to grow my brows back and am hoping this will work for my skin as it did for yours as i never knew or imagined it would help heal marks and dis coloured skin.

Thank you for helping and giving hope to people looking desperatly for ans & those who cannot afford to and do not want to resort to chemicals & facial procedures!

Hi, I have hypopigmentation scarring around my chin area. I am dark skinned and it’s noticeable. I think I acquired from stress/anxiety. I’ve tried tamanu oil & ginger juice and seeing very little melanin return but not much. Would castor oil help for this? Also, what is the best brand to buy besides Now Foods because I don’t really trust that brand. Lastly, what’s the difference between using castor oil vs Jamaican black castor oil for cosmetic purposes? Thanks for the article.

Have a scar from still slightly ongoing infection 🙁 I hear CO is antimicrobial antifungal as well !! Taking Antibiotic for 5mos doxycycline, 2.5mos cephalexin.

Lmk if you’d like a just started photo . This is eyebrow area has lots going on. Began 2/2016, acne tricks began 12/2015 when I went off BCP due to blood clot from vein work. Acne is cellulitis in my medical charts… many docs, poor trtmt (sigh ) long story..

Now , today late nov2016 I’ve noticed steroid cream recently seems to be help also suppressing it but things are starting to struggle laterally!

I believe the castor oil is going to be an amazing game changer!! Curious what might occur as mild infection is involved too

Grateful to find!! you!! as I have a lot of hyperpigmentation problems 🙂 I know CO is what I’ve needed. I also have a small pruritic nodule 4yrs duration base skull it’s going to fix this, I’m sure. Dr’s have not

Hi Samantha, I am an Indian Asian woman of 35 years. I have hyper pigmentation issues but we’re not very serious. I didn’t know why I wanted to give a try for it’s treatment. I went to the dermatologist and she suggested hydroquinone 4%. Without doing much research, I have applied the cream on my face only once overnight wherever I felt I have dark spots on the jaw lines and chin. I think the cream didn’t suit me, it made my face brown/ black wherever the cream was applied. I am so worried, the cream made my skin so worse on the first application. Do you think castor oil will be beneficial for me and it would not have any other side effects. Thanks in advance for your response!

Hi Arita, yes I think you can give castor oil a try. If you’re worried about side effects, you can also try extra virgin coconut oil or shea butter instead. That might be a better and more comfortable choice as castor oil is very thick and can feel “hot” on the face.

Hi sam
I just have read your posted i love it so much because im suffering from my scar on my face since i was kid it cut my face by the glass it almost 30 years old i have tried everything to get rid of it but not look better i never confident and it breaks my heart when people ask me what happen on my face.so you make me hope so much.so can i use on my this old scar? it will work for this old?Please answer me thank you so much

I’m forever grateful that I came across your post because this is the most hopeful scar remedy I’ve come across. Unfortunately I used to be a cutter and because of that I have a lot of self harm scars on my legs that I’m trying to get rid of as soon as possible. After a lot of research I’ve adapted your remedy to my budget and what I have laying around the house. I’m fortunate enough to have a sister that’s into playing around with different skin products (natural and chemical) so I’m in the process of creating a skin care routine to fade these scares. So far what has worked for me is mixing together Black Castor Oil, a little Bio Oil, Vitamin E Oil, Myrrh Essential Oil, Frankincense Essential Oil, Oregano Oil, Tea Tree Oil, and a few drops of lemon juice. I apply this to my skin at every chance I get and wrap my leg in it at night (and throughout the day on occasion) so that my skin can get as much of it as possible. When I take off the wrap, I have a mixture of Baking Soda, Lemon Juice, Myrrh, and Frankincense that I exfoliate my legs with and leave on for 30 minutes. When I wash it off I use a glycolic facial foaming cleanser and then lotion with Ammonium Lactate 12%. When the lotion dries I lotion again with my oil mixture and massage them both into my leg very well. It’s been one week but I’m already starting to see a significant difference and I highly doubt I would’ve thought about even putting together that oil mixture because of you!

My name is sim, i have deep old acne scars on my cheeks and also hyppigmentation on. some parts. Do you think castor oil will work. I used so many products on my face none of them work. I have to wear makeup all the time. Which makes it work. I love your post and happy to see your scar heeled lol

Iam Happy to Read positive results on Castor oil use…i am An African and i have Dark spots on my cheek caused by shaving acne..i have used Everything but in vain..i recently had a small chemical Black discoluration because of a cream i was trying..Would recomend Castor oil for Both Issues? Thank You.

I’m very sorry to hear about your accident. Regular castor oil packs could be helpful, and you can add external heat to make it penetrate more deeply if you like. Good luck and I hope you recover well!

Hi Samantha, I had angular cheilitis a few months back and it left me when very dark areas around the corners of my mouth. I have been ok with for awhile however now that it is winter my skin lightened up and my spots became more noticeable. So I tried a lot of things on it and before it just used to be dark discoloured skin but now after all the things I’ve done which was just using a turmeric paste(it apparently lightens the skin but it made it very dry) it now looks shiny and wrinkly and I now am desperate for it to go away. Do you think castor oil will help lighten but also smooth it out ?

Hi Andrea, yes, you can try castor oil (or other healing oils like coconut oil and shea butter) to lighten and heal the area. It might take some time though, so patience is needed. It’s also a good idea to support your skin’s healing internally by taking extra Vitamin C and more fruits/veggies.

Hi. May I know what brand of the castor oil you used in your scars? we have the same scars, actually I have tried everything from cheap whitening creams to expensive scars gels, it kinda help but I am not satisfied. Its been 3 years now that I was not able to wear shorts or dresses.

Hopefully I’m not too late. I seem to be accident prone and I bang my shin everywhere. I get a weekly and then a dark bruise soon after. And I’m dark skinned as well so it seems to show a lot! Will castor oil help me by July if I start now? I need something 🙁

Thank you so much for this post Samantha! Could you say a bit more about how this affected the hypopigmented spots/white scar tissue that you had? I couldn’t see any depigmentation on the photos. I have some grey/white-ish patches on my vulva caused by lichen simplex, and am desperate for just a modest re-pigmentation in the skin. Did the castor oil help you return healthy skin colour to the de-pigmented skin?

Hi Tara, you’re very welcome. And yes, castor oil “revived” the melanin I’d thought was permanently lost on the hypopigmented areas. I have no idea how it does that though. I hope you give it a try and that it can work for you too 🙂

A few months ago, My doctor pointed out a small mole on my chest, he said it looked weird and wanted to remove it. He did a shave biopsy on it and took a huge chunk of skin out! I now have a hypertrophic scar that looks like a cigar burn. I’ve been so upset about it. I’ve used Mederma pm, Vitamin E, Scaraway removal sheets, turmeric mixed with honey and lemon 24/7 since the scar formed. Nothing is working. I started using Castor Oil 2 days ago. I’ve been reading your blog everyday since I came across it cause its seriously giving me hope that this scar will go away. I will update if there is progress. Thank you for writing this blog.
-Tori

Thanks a million for sharing your story. It did indeed give me hope as well. I just had a minor burn due to a my clumsiness in the kitchen. I just ordered my bottle of Castor oil. The scab came off 2 weeks ago and underneath my skin looks pinkish with some blood cells in the middle. I will start using Castor oil and see how it goes. Did you ever use it on a wound right after scab came off? Did it make it look better? I am hoping hair would grow back in that area as well.

Hi Maya, I’m glad you’ll give it a try and very soon after you were burned too.

Unlike you, my burn scar was about 2 years old when I first started using castor oil on it, so I’m sure you’ll heal much better and faster than I did 🙂 Since then though, I’ve used castor oil immediately after getting minor cuts or scratches (par for the course since I live with rambunctious cats!), and I notice they’ve all healed pretty nicely and with no or minimal scarring. So I’m very hopeful for you.

I put castor oil under my eye and now that lower eyelid looks pretty wrinkly where it used to be so smooth. Its been several days. Will it ever go back to the way it was before. I used it to try to get rid of a wart thats still tiny. A day or two after using, I got what seem to be syringoma.

Hi CR, I’ve been using castor oil around my eyes nightly before bed for years and I’ve never gotten the reaction you did. If anything, I have no wrinkles because of my nightly ritual. But for whatever reason, castor oil might be unsuitable for your skin.

Or did you maybe try other things on your wart as well that could have caused it?

I doubt castor oil can cause permanent wrinkles on its own, so it should get back to how it was with time. The fact that you got a syringoma suggests there’s maybe more at work here.

Sorry I can’t be of more help. I hope your issues will resolve on their own.

Thank you!!! I’ve had a scar on my leg that was from a burn about ten years ago and it was horrible bumpy, and itched like crazy and there’s in color, it had gotten to the point where I would only wear long pants or skirts. And I was embarrassed to go to the doctor because I had pretty major depression and body aches that caused it in the first place, come to find out the depression was caused my lack of vitamin D I now take 2 pills of 5000 iu a day and it’s gone. Anyways back to my scar, I tried so many things, scar away silicone patches actually did wonders for helping it smooth over initially and but the redness was still there, bio oil helped but if I forgot for a day it went back to the way it looked before almost instantly, and I’ve been trying castor only for about two months now and already the skin is smoother and lighter in color and I started wearing shorts again!

Hi Samantha,
I just had erbium laser mole removal of flat mole on my nose about a month ago. I am now left with alot of redness and an indentation on part of the scar. I was prescribed a healing cream to use 2/day, just wondering if I should start using CO instead, this whole process has really gotten my emotions in a downward spiral. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you, thank you for posting. This has truly given me some hope.

Hi Katrina, I can imagine what you’re going through. Take heart though, I believe with time you can restore that area of your skin back to health. The damage from my scar was much worse and it worked for me even though I only started using castor oil 2 years after the initial injury. Yours sound much less bad and is relatively new, so I don’t see why it won’t work for you 🙂

I don’t know what the cream you were prescribed is meant to do and I can’t give any medical advice as I’m not a doctor.

But… if the cream hasn’t helped much so far (or contains chemicals/preservatives), I would stop using it and switch to something natural like castor oil or coconut oil. Based on my own experience, these oils are not quick fixes, but they work with time. And that’s really what matters.

Since you are left with some indentation, I would also advise patience and not to lose hope as it would take time for any scarring to be broken down and for the skin to rebuild its layers. There’s also a possibility that as you use castor oil, the indentation could change shape and look wider at certain phases. But if this happens, know that it’s your skin healing itself from the bottom up, and it’s only revealing the larger hole that’s been buried beneath the surface. Having said that, a temporary widening of the hole may very well not happen with you since your removed mole was a flat one (other moles would be more akin to icebergs, i.e. having a larger base beneath the visible surface, so their removal would similarly leave behind a hole that looks small from the surface, but is actually wider beneath).

And if you’re open to it, I find that making healthy changes for the body as a whole are also supportive of it’s healing abilities (including for the skin). So things like eating more fruits/veggies, taking probiotics or eating/drinking fermented food like yogurt and kombucha, getting enough sleep, taking extra Vitamin C, and minding emotional health can also make a difference.

It’s been about 3 months of continuous castor oil use on the hypertrophic scar on my chest.

Before I started using castor oil, when I would lay on my stomach and all the blood flow would go to my chest, the hypertrophic scar would get so large and thick. Now, after 3 months of castor oil, when I lay on my stomach, the scar does not get nearly as thick as it did. Its lost about 2/3 its thickness. It does not have any more pain or tightness either. However, the scar is still very much there. Everyday is different, some days it looks better, other days it looks awful. For the last week, I’ve been applying J.CROW’S® Lugol’s Solution of Iodine 2% topically to the scar once or twice a day with castor oil. It would sting a little bit when applied but I read other people had great results with it. I applied iodine last night and covered it with plastic wrap, it started burning so I took the plastic wrap off and blotted the area with a tissue and applied more castor oil hoping to dilute the area. This morning when I woke up, the area is bright red, raw, and thick. I think I may have overdid it with the Iodine so I think I will take a break and only use castor oil now. It’s been a rough road so far but i’m still hoping the scar will eventually go away. Some days like today, I just want to go to a plastic surgeon and ask him to cut the area out and stitch it up. Since, it was a doctor who caused the scar in the first place, I’m so scared it will just leave a worse scar than before. I will update again in another 3 months.

Thanks so much for taking the time to come back with an update. I’m glad you’re seeing some progress and the pain has gone away. Your hypertrophic scar actually sounds a little like the one I have on my elbow. It was red and vascularized before, but now it’s more like normal skin in its coloring.

Lugol’s is a pretty strong solution and can lead to burning, and an effect like one would get from a chemical skin peel. If Lugol’s is problematic but you still want to try and get iodine in it, you may want to consider iodine tincture instead. As long as the skin hasn’t been recently injured or abraded, this shouldn’t burn the way Lugol’s can. The most you’d get by overdoing iodine tincture is skin flaking from dryness and itchiness from the dry skin (the dryness is from the alcohol in the tincture), in which case all you’d need to do is take a break for several days.

It sounds like the redness and inflammation you got from using Lugol’s should be temporary and will go away as the area recovers. But if you’re worried, you could try to speed up the healing a bit by taking extra Vitamin C.

By the way, I so understand what you mean about the urge to have a doctor just cut the scar out and be done with it… I’ve had the same thoughts too. It’s not easy. But something that has helped me a lot is that the way I look at my scars has evolved over time. When I was younger, I used to hate them with a passion and beg God to just take them away. But if you think about it, this is a very, very strange way for any living thing to feel. The scars, however imperfect they might be, are still a part of our bodies and flesh. They are “ours” and “us” as much as anything in the world can be. And hating something that’s a part of us is just heaping cruelty onto our own heads. I truly believe only humans do this in the natural world.

If you can find a way to accept your scar the way it is right now, send acceptance and gratefulness to it the way you would to your hands and feet and eyes, it could make a big difference in how you heal. The mind plays a big role in healing.

I know it won’t be easy to feel gratefulness for your scar, but in a very real way, it’s been helping you to live and to survive. Without our scars acting as a plug over the initial injury, we’d have a gaping hole in our skin that’d be bleeding profusely, likely leading to infection, a serious medical condition and our swift passing. So it’s a *very* good thing that our scars are there. The only “problem” we have is that they don’t quite look the way we’d like them to right now, and that’s a relatively minor issue compared to the one we’d have without them…

Thankyou so much for uploading this really helpful post on your skin recovery.

I, too, was burnt by a motorbike exhaust pipe during a holiday at the exact same spot as you!! I got burnt in late January this year. Right now, the wound has fully healed and flattened. But what is left now is a brown oval-shaped pigment on the back of my leg! I’m worried that I won’t be able to wear skirts or dresses this summer here in Australia.

I have bought some castor oil, but am not sure if it’s the real thing. I’m in Australia and we don’t really stock castor oil. The one I have is white in colour, and on the bottle it says 1ml/ml. Is this good enough for effective treatment of the scar?

Where I live, castor oil isn’t easy to find either. And when I do find it, it’s ridiculously overpriced. So I just buy mine online. There’s many online stores that sell castor oil. I buy mine from iherb.com because the shipping is reasonable. You can look around for a store that offers cheap shipping to Australia.

I’m not familiar with the castor oil you describe. The kind I use is a clear yellowish oil, not opaque white. But there’s another castor oil that’s opaque and black (Jamaican), so maybe your white opaque oil is just a different type? You can test it on your skin and see how it feels. If there’s no bad reaction, I don’t see why you shouldn’t use it. It could turn out to be very effective.

In any case, even though I used castor oil, I believe other types of healing natural oils can help fade scars as well (shea butter, Vit E oil) and others have testified to this if you do a search. So it’s more likely that it’s not the type of oil alone that matters, but that it’s used for a long enough period of time to have a healing effect.

p.s: I would guess that 1 ml/ml means there’s no other ingredients in the bottle i.e. there is 1 ml of castor oil per ml of liquid, meaning it’s pure castor oil, and not castor oil + other oils + preservatives + etc etc. But I could easily be wrong about this, it’s not really my area.

The castor oil I have is clear white, and its very viscous and thick. The brand is called Gold Cross, and it seems to be the only brand of castor oil available here. The bottle also says that it can be used to take in the body to relieve a bad stomach, diarrhoea, etc., as well as on the skin for emollient purposes.

Also, I have a bottle of avocado + rosehip oil which I might interchange with the castor oil to seek the benefits of both! Apparently, avocado oil is good for healing scars and it’s a thick oil, like castor oil. Rosehip is also good for scar reduction as well.

But the thing I’m worried about is that my scar is quite huge – I’d say 2.5 × 1.5 inches on my calf. And it’s hard to be consistent in applying the oils on the skin everyday for a few months, and it makes my sleeping position hard as my calf is literally on the bed, which I’m afraid will not allow the oils to be absorbed properly.

At the moment, it’s still cold here so wearing skinny jeans is obviously good to cover the scar, but it’s kind of an inconvenience as well because my skin is not allowed to breathe and absorb the oil/s.

I looked into faster treatments such as chemical peels and laser, but I’m scared that it might do my skin more harm than good, and it’s really expensive!

Hi Anna, I think what you have is just fine, and it sounds like you have an abundance of good oils on hand. So that’s good 🙂

I understand what you mean. My scar was the same as yours, in an awkward position. Though we’re pretty lucky too, our burns could have been on a harder-to-reach place (like our backs).

Anyway, that’s why I used a castor oil pack at night. It keeps the oil on the scar and not wiped away by the sheets. I kept the pack on with a sock that was long enough, but you can use anything that feels secure enough to you. And if a sock feels too hot, you can always use an old one, cut off the foot portion and just use the leftover tube to hold the pack in place. Cut pantyhose or women’s tights might work too (though I’ve not tried those).

And during the day, I didn’t use a castor oil pack as it was too uncomfortable. So at work and at home, I would just rub a tiny bit of castor oil into my scar whenever I got the chance. Just a drop or so is good enough — it should be absorbed into the skin and not stain the pants. If you put too much on, you can always dab it with toilet/tissue paper. There’s no need for excess oil to sit on top of the skin when it’s been absorbed by the cells. That’s really what matters, I think.

And I wouldn’t advise on a chemical peel. I’ve been down that road, and maybe it was just my experience, but I regretted it. It might be different for women who do it to reveal younger skin beneath though. I know some women report good results with that. For scars however, my view is that the best outcome after a chemical peel would be the acid was too weak, leading to no effect and zero damage on the scar. The worst outcome is that the peel was too strong or left on for too long, and then it’s basically more injury on top of what’s already there.

But having been there, I definitely understand the temptation. I think it’s human that when we’re bothered by something we see as a flaw to think that the solution is to burn it off (I wrote about this urge a bit more in the last two paragraphs of an older reply here). But take it from someone who’s tried and regretted it — resist! You’ll save yourself money, pain and potential further injury.

I’ve just started to use castor oil, it’s only been a 1 week or so, but I have tried my best to apply it on whenever I have the chance.

I will try to update you on it when I start seeing results (which should be a few months from now?)

Anyway, I also wanted to ask your opinion on another product that my friends have introduced me to. Say if it’s a really hot summers day and you have no choice but to go out in a dress or skirt. Obviously, the pigmented scar on your calf would show but I recently just came across a product called Dermablend Professional – Leg and Body Foundation. It’s said to literally act as a foundation on your body. My friends have tried it on and they’ve commented that it is pretty good, stays on for the whole day, is non-transferrable, can be used alone or with powder, and has medium to high coverage.

I think I might give this product a go on days where I need to get out of the house and it’s hot outside. However, I’m not sure if the product will worsen the pigmentation if I use it alone…

As long as your skin doesn’t react negatively to the foundation (e.g. allergic reaction), I don’t see why you shouldn’t use it. It shouldn’t worsen the pigmentation, but would rather act as a “sun block” for your scar.

So if wearing the foundation outside gives you a greater sense of ease, freedom and comfort, why not use it?

Your story has really made me feel hopeful about my situation. I got sunburn a year ago on the lower half of my leg and it has left me with a hyperpigmented scar. A couple months ago, I endured another sunburn on my legs which has left me with awkward taned patches. I am hoping they will fade as the previous sunburn was more severe and is more of a scar i believe these news matches maybe only be a tan although I can’t really tell.. Regardless, I am tired of not being able to expose my legs therefore I have purchased castor oil to try and heal my skin and possibly fade/rid these marks. I hear castor oil is good a reducing pigmentation. Do you think it could work for me, across the next few months/year to regain my original colour and fade these patches and my scar?

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